PD18 CPU & GPU Performance Boosts

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

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Oct 08, 2019 23:54

CL MARCOM claims an enhanced PD18 feature is:
"CPU & GPU Performance Boosts Don’t waste time waiting for your software to respond! PowerDirector supports transcoding of non-full frame video clips in a single timeline track. Also enjoy better performance on 8+ core processors with improved multi-threading."

Has anyone experienced such performance boost claims with their transcoding?

I have not with any of my source footage which is typically 1920x1080/60p or 60i and 4k/30p, predominantly all Canon VIXIA series cameras to various produce formats so I tried to find some clips that fit the wording more precisely. From https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikon-d7100/23 I downloaded toyboat60i.mov and pan_13crop60i.mov which by definition are non-full frame clips for this camera. I also utilized a 12 core Intel processor which fits the release note enhanced claim.

I've transcoded the two above mentioned clips to several default PD encode formats:
1920x1080/60p, 40Mbps, H.264 in MP4 format, CPU decode and encode, PD17 and PD18 encoding times are identical
1920x1080/60i, 24Mbps, H.264 in M2TS format, CPU decode and encode, PD17 and PD18 encoding times are identical
1920x1080/30p, 11Mbps, H.265 in MP4 format, CPU decode and encode, PD17 and PD18 encoding times are identical
4K/30p, 37Mbps, H.265 in M2TS format, CPU decode and encode, PD17 and PD18 encoding times are identical
4K/30p, 37Mbps, H.265 in M2TS format, GPU GTX2070 decode and encode, PD17 and PD18 encoding times are identical

Basically, I've failed to see any such transcode performance enhancements for this claimed "Performance Boost".

Jeff


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SoNic67

Senior Contributor Joined: Sep 27, 2014 14:14 Messages: 1308 Offline

Oct 10, 2019 05:32

I have two CPU's in my system, both with 8 cores, for a total of 16 (32 virtual). With 64GB or RAM.

Even a simple task as aplying a color correction fails to use completelly the CPU (maximum on my system is like 33%). Or the GPU (mainly decoding/encoding). Or my RAID HDD bandwidth. Or use more RAM than 2GB (for HD video).

To me that shows that there are still bottlenecks in the software, latencies. Those were present in the older versions too.
Were those "improved"? I don't think so, and I don't have the 17 anymore to compare.

PS: PD still uses DX11 (as far as I can tell), and that might be a source - DX12 was supposed to help with the latencies, but it would require a lot more programming from the developr to achieve that. But that would be only helpfull with the GPU enabled effects, can't help with the CPU utilization bottleneck.

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Oct 11, 2019 18:46

Quote Even a simple task as aplying a color correction fails to use completelly the CPU (maximum on my system is like 33%). Or the GPU (mainly decoding/encoding). Or my RAID HDD bandwidth. Or use more RAM than 2GB (for HD video).

To me that shows that there are still bottlenecks in the software, latencies. Those were present in the older versions too.
Were those "improved"?

Not that I've been able to observe. I've tried several color corrections and other types of adjustments, monitored CPU load during encode, and don't notice any significant difference between PD17 and PD18. For such a main page promotion splash, I'm thinking something should be vastly noticable, 25+% improvement, I surely have not found it yet.

Jeff